Students are taught that staring at the sun isn’t a good idea. However, today was an exception, as long as you’re wearing your protective eyewear.

For the first time in 38 years, people all around the United States had the chance to witness an eclipse first hand.

Students at Liberty were provided protective eyewear and had the chance to go outside to experience the eclipse. Kona Ice was available for purchase during the event.

As the students walked to the football field, there were multiple chalk drawings on the sidewalks for them to view, provided by Mrs. Biere’s drawing classes.

Liberty High School and Frontier Middle were the best spots to be in the district for the totality of the eclipse. The eclipse started at 11:45 a.m. The totality began at 1:16 p.m. at Liberty and lasted about a 1 minute and 14 seconds.

During totality, the sky was not pitch black, but looked more like dusk.

This was an educational experience for many of the students since Liberty have not had an eclipse in their lifetime.

“Everybody’s really excited, some are pretty scared because they don’t know what’s going to happen.” junior Zoe Killingsworth said.

Some of the students even took matters into their own hands and were very intrigued by the eclipse.

Junior Zach Goettling used a camera to capture the event. “I’ve always admired the sun and the moon,” Goettling said. “By taking pictures, I get to capture the moment.”

Many students commented on the humid and scorching heat outside before the eclipse, but began to be relieved when at 1:06 p.m., the temperature had already dropped eight degrees.

Several teachers used today to learn about the eclipse with the students. Mrs. Tarrant-Oliphant took advantage of the eclipse and played Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon album.

“I think it’s really neat, and it’s a once in a lifetime event. It’s hard to grasp how cool it will be because none of us have seen one,” Mrs. Tarrant-Oliphant said. “ I think that once we see it people will be more understanding of why it was such a big deal.”

Other teachers weren’t as impressed. An especially disappointed teacher, Mr. Walterbach, even went as far as to nickname it the “total let-down eclipse.”

He said, “It was cool to see the moon move,” but he was disappointed when it wasn’t “pitch black.”

The total eclipse was more exciting for students than they thought it would be. After all, it is a once-in a lifetime-experience.